


Slide

by Jaina



Series: Sliders [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Henry's Two Mom's Go On Adventures, Swan-Mills Dysfunctional Family, The Enchanted Forest, portal fic, season 3 finale fix-it fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-17 18:36:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2319353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaina/pseuds/Jaina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina follows Emma out of the diner after it's revealed that Emma wants to take Henry back to New York City. Together they're sucked into Zelena's portal and land in the past...or do they? Thrown together against their will, they must struggle to survive, both one another and what they find down the portal.</p><p>Warning: There is some violence. I didn't feel like it was enough to warrant the graphic violence tag, but it's there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [supernana494](https://archiveofourown.org/users/supernana494/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Slide](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1866726) by [supernana494](https://archiveofourown.org/users/supernana494/pseuds/supernana494). 



> Warning: There is some violence. I didn't feel like it was enough to warrant the graphic violence tag, but it's there.
> 
> A big thank you to ohthesefeelingz and ludivinelaurel for their help with this fic. It's much appreciated. :D 
> 
> This work is part of a series. The series was intended to all be one GIANT story, but I ran out of time to finish it all for the Big Bang, so this. It hangs complete as a story in itself and sets up - neatly I hope - the next story in the series. I won't be waiting for the next Big Bang, if there is one, to finish the series, but I'll be working on it as I have time. Hope you enjoy!

The thunder of horse hooves from behind them grew louder with every passing second. Emma didn’t have much time to dwell on it. She was clinging to Regina, with arms wrapped around her waist, getting bounced almost off the horse each time its hooves hit the ground, throwing her a little more off balance as the back edge of the saddle jabbed her pelvic bone. Branches slapped at her face and arms. An arrow whistled past her head and slammed into the tree just beyond them.

 

“Shit,” Emma yelped, almost losing her balance again as she instinctively ducked to the side. “They have arrows!”

 

“I see that, Miss Swan,” Regina bit out. The horse ducked around another tree at the last moment, altering its course. Something ripped at Emma’s sleeve and she glanced down to see a chunk of the sleeve of her leather jacket was missing, ripped out by a passing arrow. If they hadn’t darted away just then… “How many riders behind us?”

 

Emma glanced back, pressing as close to Regina’s back as she could to keep from falling as she did. The motion of the horse jarred her head into Regina’s shoulder blade, but Emma hardly noticed. She did a quick head count, stopping when she hit two dozen and realized that with all the darting and dashing in and out of the heavy trees that they were doing she couldn’t be sure. “I don’t know. Too fucking many,” she spat out. Amongst the black of all those riders and the deep greens and browns of the forest, Emma caught a glimpse of white in the trees and her heart stopped.

 

“Very helpful,” Regina shot back. “Hold on.”

 

“Hold on?” Emma repeated, whipping back around. “I am-” Her words were cut off as the horse arched himself into a perfect leap, clearing a large fallen tree that stretched across their path at the last instant . Emma’s chin slammed into Regina’s shoulder. Pain exploded in her jaw and her heart lodged itself in its throat. She wobbled dangerously, slipping to the side as they hit the ground again, and losing her hold on Regina. Emma scrabbled for something, anything to stay on the horse. Her fingers dug into the fabric of Regina’s blazer, clenching for an instant on something solid and then there was a ripping sound. The blazer tore and Emma’s arms pinwheeled out, grabbing and missing. She hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of her lungs, and rolled to her side, pushing herself up on her elbows and raising her head to face the oncoming horde.

 

Beside Emma the horse was wild-eyed, shifting back and forth, refusing to stand in place as it panted wildly. Its sides heaved, drenched with sweat and flecked with bits of foam. Regina didn’t seem to be exerting any effort at all or giving any conscious thought to staying on as she faced their pursuers. Emma hated it.

 

Emma doubled over, bracing her hands on her knees. “Not that I’m not happy to be off that damn horse, but why aren’t we running again, Regina?”

 

“Look behind you, dear,” Regina said, sounding far too calm for their current predicament.

 

If it was worse than what was in front of them, Emma didn’t want to know. She did as Regina had said anyway. No matter what it was, they would get through it. They had to. Henry was waiting for them and they were both here. There was no way they would leave him without both of his mothers. The clearing that they had stumbled into continued on for another few dozen feet and then dropped sharply off into a sheer cliff. Taking a deep breath, Emma edged closer and looked over. The ground fell away beneath the drop for hundreds of feet to a river - if it could be called that. It was more like a collection of jagged rocks with a trickle of water flowing through the middle. There was no other bank, just a high side and a low side. They were well and truly trapped.

 

“Shit,” Emma said succinctly, stepping back from the edge and turning to rejoin Regina. It was just in time to see an arrow flashing toward Regina. Emma’s heart stopped. She was too far away to- A flick of Regina’s fingers and the arrow vanished in an explosion of flame that burned so quickly that all that hit Regina was dust and ash. “Are you okay?”

 

“Never better,” Regina said, sarcasm dripping from her words. She sighed. “I was so relieved to be done with arrows when we returned to Storybrooke.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, it’s all my fault,” Emma muttered. “But what are we going to do now?”

 

Regina glanced over at her for the first time. “Is it charged yet?”

 

Emma slipped her hand inside her jacket and felt for the rod pressed up against her ribs. She had been told that it would warm beneath her fingers when it was ready to use. It still felt like ice. “Nope, not yet.”

 

“Damn.” It was the first time that Emma had ever heard Regina swear. Her head snapped up to look up at Regina with surprise, but she looked as calm and confident as ever. “We’ll have to play it by ear then. I believe that’s your specialty.”

 

Black guards mounted on towering horses began to flood into the clearing, surrounding them in a half-circle until there was nowhere they could break through the line. Horses stomped, iron shoes flashing and throwing up clods of dirt. Emma had never considered how noisy a full complement of armored knights could be before, but she knew now. Leather squeaked. Metal clanged and hissed as swords were drawn by the first row of knights. A second row of horsemen farther back had bows pointed at them and she was pretty sure there was some spears thrown in there for good measure.

 

Emma shook her head. “Usually. But not like this. Not against the Dark One.”

 

***    ***    ***

 

**16 Hours Earlier**

 

“I’ll go after her,” Hook said into the silence as Regina stared after Emma. Snow and Charming shared a glance but didn’t make a move to go after her. The baby in Snow’s arms cooed and she glanced back down at him. She smiled involuntarily when she saw him. Regina recognized the look of a besotted new mother well. Snow and Charming didn’t want their daughter running away from Storybrooke and taking their only grandson with her either, but they would be no help, too distracted by the baby. She was the one who would have to deal with this then, not some dirty pirate who was still lingering around this town for no good reason. She had no idea why Emma let him stay after the way he had betrayed her to Zelena. If it had been her, well… it was probably a good thing it hadn’t been.

 

“Certainly not,” Regina said, putting a hand on his arm to stop him. He turned to face her, glancing between her and the hand on his arm pointedly. She gave him a glare that would have immolated a lesser peasant. “Henry is my son. This involves him, not some tawdry affair you may wish to be having with Miss Swan. I won’t allow you to ruin this with your interference. I’ll go talk some sense into her.”

 

“It won’t work,” Hook called after her. “It’s Swan. She’s all about feeling not thinking. You haven’t got a bloody clue how to deal with her feelings - or even what feelings are.” If the words had come from someone who Regina had even remotely cared about, they might have stung. As it was, from Hook, they rolled off her back as if they had never been spoken.

 

Regina exited the diner without a backwards glance and found Emma pacing out in front of Granny’s courtyard. Emma looked up at the tinkling of the bell on the door. Something flared in her eyes, and Regina thought she might turn and run. It was what Emma did best, but Emma held her ground, staring defiantly at Regina.

 

“I’m not trying to take him away from you,” Emma said, throwing the words down in front of her like a gauntlet when Regina said nothing.

 

“No,” Regina said, taking a few steps closer and folding her arms over her chest. “You simply wish to take my son - whom I haven’t seen in over a year and up until a day ago had no memories of me - back to a city hundreds of miles away from here and keep him there.”

 

“You could visit,” Emma said. From the way she said it, it sounded as lame to her own ears as it did to Regina. "Or you could move too," Emma blurted out. "It's not you I'm trying to keep him away from, Regina. It's this damn town and the people and the magic and the crazies trying to kidnap and kill him."

 

"It may not be what you’re trying to accomplish,” Regina said, picking her words carefully, struggling not to let her anger and fear get the best of her. With Snow casting the curse this time, she didn’t even know if she could cross the boundary as she had before. “But it’s what will happen. It isn't right or fair, Emma. Have you even asked him what he wants to do?"

 

“He wants to stay,” Emma said. “But he doesn’t know what he wants. He doesn’t get it. He’s just a kid. He doesn’t understand how dangerous this life is. Villains keep coming. Pan took him all the way to Neverland and he almost died. More than once. Is that what you want for him?”

 

“No, Emma,” Regina said, tired and resigned to having this argument when she would much rather be back inside with Henry, Robin and Roland. “You know that isn’t what I want for Henry. But he shouldn’t live his life in fear either. This is where he wants to be - with all of his family, growing up in a wonderful town full of magic and adventure.”

 

“It isn’t wonderful. The adventure is going to kill him and his family-” Emma cut herself off.

 

“What about his family?” Regina demanded, the words cutting across her skin like a knife.

 

“He’ll have family in New York too. It doesn’t matter,” Emma said.

 

Regina’s eyes narrowed. “I thought family is what you claim to have spent your whole life searching for. And now you’re going to just run away from it? Typical. You’re the one that’s too frightened to stay.” Regina glanced toward the diner. They could still see Snow and David from the window where they stood. “Why? Because your parents had another child and now you feel replaced? Don’t take your cowardly feelings out on my son. It would be a dangerous mistake on your part. He doesn’t want to go and I won’t allow him to be taken against his will.”

 

Emma took a step forward, her hands dropping to her side and balling into fists. “Is that a threat?”

 

A loud whoosh of sound interrupted them. It was followed by a brilliant flare of light that solidified into a single beam flaring into the sky, until it was obscured by the clouds.

 

“What the hell is that?” Emma demanded.

 

Regina shook her head. “I don’t know.”

 

Their eyes locked, a thought occurring to them at the same time.

 

“Zelena.”

 

“The portal.”

 

“C’mon,” Emma said, grabbing Regina’s arm. “We need to go and check it out.”

 

Regina glanced down at the hand on her arm and Emma snatched it back quickly, before Regina removed it permanently. “We’ll check out this portal, but we aren’t done with our discussion. Don’t think I’ll forget it, dear.”

 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Emma snarled as she jogged for her car.

 

***   ***    ***

 

“How is that barn still standing?” Emma muttered as they approached it. The golden light shooting up out of it was more intense than ever.

 

“Magic,” Regina said, her voice as dry as the Sonoran desert.

 

Emma rolled her eyes and glared. She rested her hand on her revolver as they approached. “How is this possible? Didn’t you take her pendant?”

 

“You know I did,” Regina said, sounding irritated at being questioned.

 

“Well, apparently that wasn’t her only source of power,” Emma conjectured as she nudged the barn door open. She went inside with her gun drawn and Regina one step behind her. She was content to let Emma take the lead, for the moment. Let Emma rush in. Regina would be right there behind her with her magic at the ready whenever trouble found them.

 

“There are far too many variables here to know what has happened. We should call David and have him check on Zelena. Make certain that she hasn’t attempted to escape,” Regina said, as she began to circle the area carved into the floor for the ritual. The channels were glowing with magic now, green like Zelena’s. “It makes no sense. The spell shouldn’t have continued after her magic was stopped. She was interrupted in the midst of it. Magic doesn’t just act spontaneously.”

 

“Except mine,” Emma pointed out, from the opposite side of the circle.

 

“No, you might not have conscious control over your magic at times, but it’s still responding to your desires,” Regina corrected.

 

“Pretty sure Zelena desires to go back in time and fuck up all of our lives,” Emma said, with a grimace.

 

“But she is no longer connected to the magic that can enforce those wishes," Regina reminded her. This discussion was getting them nowhere. "We can discuss this later. Let's shut this portal down now."

 

"Right," Emma agreed, stepping around the rest of the circle and holding her hand out to Regina.

 

Regina eyed her hand, but didn't take it. Casting magic with someone required a certain level of harmonious thought between the casters - a shared intention if nothing else. She wasn't feeling very harmonious toward Emma at the moment. All the fondness she had felt at the memory of Emma for the past year when she was stuck back in the Enchanted Forest had faded in the wake of Emma threatening to take Henry away from her again.

 

"C'mon," Emma said, waggling her hand at Regina. "We're stronger together. Let's get this done. I don't want to be here all day. This barn is creepy."

 

Regina took Emma's hand. A too pleasant smile spread across her lips as she squeezed it as hard as she could.

 

"Ow, ow, ow," Emma complained, leaning closer to Regina as if that would ease the pain of her grip. It had no effect, of course.

 

"All magic comes with a price, Miss Swan," Regina said, getting more glee out of those words than she ever had before. "Now let's close this portal." She tugged on the hand that held Emma's to get her to straighten and eased her grip as she raised her free hand. It wouldn't do to ruin the other woman's concentration. It was fragile enough on a good day that it was a wonder that Emma was ever able to work magic.

 

Emma wiggled their joined hand as if she was trying to work a kink out of her fingers and then copied Regina and raised her other. "Got any magic words?"

 

Regina sniffed and didn't deign to look at Emma. "Focus on what you desire is the only thing necessary." Regina suited action to words summoning magic and directing at the portal. She had swallowed a death curse. This should be a snap.

 

The air shimmered with Regina's magic. The brilliant white of it still surprised her. It felt so different from the way she usually cast magic. It was purer, of course, and not dark. But a small part of Regina missed the deep purple her magic had always been. It was like an old friend. She might no longer be the same person she had been when they met but there was still a connection there that would forever be shared, no matter how they changed in the meantime. Nothing came from Emma’s hands.

 

“Oh, right,” Emma muttered, shuffling back a few steps and shoving her hands in her pockets. “I forgot.”

 

Regina shook her head and looked away.

 

“What?” Emma demanded. “Say it.”

 

Regina sniffed. “I don’t understand how you can dismiss what Hook did so easily.”

 

Emma shrugged. “He says he went along with it to protect Henry.”

 

“And that’s enough? Hook’s word is all it takes to convince you,” Regina said, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice. “His actions could have gotten you killed - and the same would have still happened to Henry if we hadn’t gotten to the docks when we did.”

 

“Can we not talk about this?” Emma muttered, nodding at the portal. “Let’s just get it over with. You can go back to your breakfast with Robin-”

 

“And you can finish packing,” Regina countered, arching an eyebrow and daring Emma to contradict what she had said, or try to pacify her with nonsense again.

 

“Look, I’d do it myself if I could,” Emma said, raising her hands and waggling her fingers, showing just how much nothing was there.

 

“It’s probably best that you can’t,” Regina said, her eyes narrowing at the way Emma had ignored her. “You would just screw it up as you Charming’s always do.” Regina raised her hands anyway, turning her focus back to the portal, and let her magic flow from her fingers.

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Regina saw Emma glance over at her. The portal was beginning to shrink, but Regina could feel the sweat dripping down her own brow. Zelena's magic had been very powerful. Regina hoped she had enough magic to get it done. It was a realistic assessment but one that Regina had refused to consider. She had sucked down a death curse that Rumplestiltskin hadn’t even thought possible without the tiniest side-effect. She could do this too. Her magic wavered and Regina gritted her teeth. Henry, Henry, Henry. The thought steadied her and strengthened her magic. He was the only thing she needed to get through this. And Emma wanted to take him away.

 

Regina's magic flickered, wavered just for an instant, brilliant white shot through with the deepest purples. The moment it hit the green light of Zelena's portal it contracted, sucking inwards to the tiniest ball. Regina had a single moment of thinking they had done it. Then the magic exploded outwards, knocking her and Emma off their feet and slamming them into the ground. Regina's head rang. The roar of the portal grew even louder than before and it began to suck them in, pulling them inexorably toward it. She and Emma were both scrambling for handholds and digging their boots into the ground in an effort to stop their slide but it was no good. Each time it seemed like they had made some progress, its pull would redouble. All her magic was focused on closing the portal. If she diverted any of that focus to pull them away from it, it would strengthen enough to suck them down in that instant.

 

Emma slipped first, losing her grip on the tiny ledge she had curled her fingers around. With her feet flying up in the air, sucked toward the portal, there was nothing to stop her. Nothing but Regina's grip on her arm. It was strong enough to yank Regina to her feet. She teetered precariously as the heels of her boots dug into a narrow channel dug into the ground.

 

Terror was written all over Emma's features, her eyes wide and skin pale and washed out. She glanced behind her at the portal and then back at Regina. It was still pulling them in. Already Regina was bent forward with Emma's weight instead of leaning back into it as she had been.

 

Regina tightened her grip on Emma's hand. Emma fallen through a portal for her once before. It wouldn't happen again. Emma glanced over her shoulder at the portal sucking her in, and Regina could see the instant she made a decision.

 

"You have to be here for Henry," Emma yelled to be heard over the roar of the portal.

 

"So do you," Regina commanded. "He needs us both." Privately she thought it was a rich sentiment given what Emma had been threatening to do, but it was a thought she appreciated nonetheless.

 

"Let go, Regina," Emma demanded, opening her fingers.

 

Regina responded by tightening her grip on Emma's forearm. She wished that she had forgone her gloves that day. She would be more than happy to dig in and sink her nails into Emma’s arm - to help her hold on to her, of course.

 

"Stop being a coward, Emma," Regina gritted out through clenched teeth.

 

"I'm thinking of our son," Emma countered.

 

"So am I," Regina snapped back. "But I'm not being selfish about it. So stop and fight for him."

 

Emma's fingers curled around Regina's forearm and Regina yanked, throwing all her weight backwards and away from the portal. Regina felt it give, felt it actually start to work. Something shifted beneath the heel of her boot and Regina glanced down. There was nothing she could do but watch in horror as the pebble rolled out beneath her heel. She dug in, trying to regain some traction but all it took was an instant of that lack of resistance for the portal to suck them in.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

The portal spat them out none too gently, slamming them to the ground. Emma rolled with it, but Regina didn't manage as well. Her shoulder hit the ground hard and her head right behind it. Pain exploded behind her eyes and she let out a groan.

 

"Regina," Emma called, stumbling across the few feet between them. They had gotten separated at some point in their journey through the portal. "Are you okay?" Emma reached toward her, almost touching the side of her face then drawing her hand back before she made contact.

 

Regina closed her eyes, wincing inwardly at the way it pulled her skin and pain shot through her again. "How bad is it?" Regina asked, taking a deep breath and opening her eyes again.

 

As if that was the permission she had needed, Emma reached out again and this time her thumb brushed over the tender flesh just below Regina's eye. She kept her touch light but even that made Regina aware of how warm her skin was.

 

"You're going to have one hell of a shiner tomorrow," Emma diagnosed. "But I think you'll be fine besides that."

 

"That's so reassuring," Regina said, thrusting Emma's hand away and pushing herself to her feet. She wavered and rocked back on her heels only to have one heel give on her completely. Her arms wheeled for purchase and Emma caught her with a strong arm around her waist.

 

"Gotcha," Emma murmured.

 

"It appears so," Regina said. Emma hadn’t let go of her yet, but Regina was in no mood to be so chummy. She pushed away from Emma enough to rest a hand on Emma's shoulder and bent to examine her boot. The offending heel dangled from the boot at an odd angle when she raised it. "Shoddy craftsmanship. How disappointing," Regina snarled.

 

"Is that what happened?" Emma asked.

 

"I suppose so," Regina said. She had little interest in rehashing how they had come to be here. She should have let the foolish pirate run out after his would-be-paramour after all.

 

"So it really worked?" Emma asked. She had left Regina's side and was exploring the little clearing they had been dumped in. "This is the Enchanted Forest in the past."

 

For the first time Regina began to take in their surroundings. It looked like the Enchanted Forest, but then one patch of woods looked much like any other in Regina's experience. "I suppose. We are certainly not in Storybrooke anymore." Regina raised a hand and conjured a ball of fire. It flared into existence in her hand with more ease than it had in years. She felt stronger and more powerful already. This was the land where she had learned to use magic and she was more attuned to it here than in any other place.

 

"What the hell, Regina?" Emma demanded, falling back a step and raising her hands. "I know you're pissed at me about Henry but now isn't the time to have it out okay? We have to work together if we're going to get home."

 

Regina rolled her eyes. "Because that worked so well with the portal." She extinguished the fireball in her hand. "I have no intention of fighting with you. I was testing my magic to see how it worked here."

 

"Oh. Right." Pink tinted Emma's cheeks and she looked down. "So what do we do now?"

 

"Well, there's no way to tell if we are truly in the past, but the way my magic is working tells me we are in the Enchanted Forest," Regina informed her.

 

"Right. So we need a magic bean," Emma concluded. “Or some other magical item to open a portal.”

 

"No, if we really are in the past it won’t be so simple. We’ll have to find a way to move forward through time again, as well as some way to open a portal.” Regina tapped a finger to her lips as she considered their first step. A faint vibration beneath their feet caught her attention. There were horses coming and more than a few of them. Until they knew the situation or who commanded them, it would be best to stay out of sight. "Come," Regina said, taking Emma's sleeve and pulling her toward a thicket at the edge of the clearing. It would be sufficient to hide them for the moment.

 

"What's wrong?" Emma asked but she let Regina drag her along.

 

"Riders are coming," Regina explained and to her surprise Emma picked up the pace.

 

They had themselves well hidden before the horses and riders appeared. Regina hissed the moment they came into view. They were all too familiar, riding their dark steeds and wearing their enveloping black garb. In fact, she knew the first rider. His face was covered as all of her guards’ had been, but she had learned to pick out individual guards by the way they held themselves, how they road, the way they pinned their cloaks and a hundred other little details. How else would she have known who to hold accountable for their incompetence or reward for rare moments of excellence? The better question was how had Pierre gotten here? She had just seen him back in Storybrooke the previous week at the grocery store. Perhaps they really were in the past and if that were true.... Well, she was the Evil Queen. Holding a hand out to keep Emma back, Regina backed out of the thicket and stepped out into the path.

 

"What the hell are you doing?" Emma hissed from their hiding spot, but Regina ignored her, not sparing Emma a backwards glance.

 

"Halt," she commanded, raising her hand. "In the name of your queen."

 

The riders slowed to a stop, encircling her until she was completely surrounded, dwarfed by men and horses. Regina rested her hands on her hips and stared at the man she knew, Pierre. He stared back, arms crossed at the wrist, and leaned forward to look down at her. He was masked, of course, like all of her guards were, but there was no sign of recognition in his body language.

 

“And why would our queen bid us stop for you, lady?” asked one of the riders from behind her.

 

“I am your queen,” Regina declared, turning to pin him with a gaze ferocious enough that it would seem to burn through the layer of anonymity his helm provided. “There has been an incident and I require your assistance.” She didn’t wait for them to agree but continued on. It was the only way with these idiots. She hadn’t hired them for their strategic thinking skills. “You will escort me to my castle and then return to your original mission.”

 

Laughter rippled around the group of riders.

 

“She’s a funny one, isn’t she?” called one of the riders with a giggle that was nothing at all like when Rumplestiltskin did it. Rumple was demeaning and insane. This was the giggle of a fool, a man who still thought like a boy, a man who would not live long in her service if he did not grow wiser and soon.

 

The tiny hairs at the back of Regina’s neck were beginning to prickle at the knowledge that something was wrong here, but their laughter wasn’t doing anything to make her calmer. She was already furious, furious with Emma for threatening to take Henry from her and for getting them into this mess. She needed to be somewhere safe, stable, where they would have time to find out how they had gotten here, and what they needed to do to get back. Her castle was the best choice for their base of operations. She just had to convince them she was the queen. Her clothes weren’t doing her any favors. Perhaps if she showed them who she truly was… With a flick of her wrist, magic swirled around her, and when the purple mist was gone, she was clothed in one of her favorite dresses - her hair done to match.

 

It was tasteful by the standards she had held back then, velvet of the deepest red, covering her from her wrists to the train that would drag behind her, finished with black lace accents that accented her waist, and tantalized peasants and lords alike with hints of cleavage while nothing was actually on display. If they were dolts enough that they hadn’t recognized her before, they would now. “Ring any bells, gentlemen?” Regina demanded. “Now find me a horse!” Her voice cracked out the demand like a whip and two of the men snapped to attention, turning away to do what she had said on instinct alone.

 

Pierre was the third, but he didn’t turn away. In one smooth motion, he straightened and swung off his horse. “The Evil Queen!”

 

It took Regina an instant to realize it wasn’t a cry of recognition but one of warning. She raised her hand, summoning a ball of fire as Pierre flung himself across the clearing toward her. It hit him square in the chest and she summoned another. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the thicket at the far corner of the clearing shaking. Emma had stopped listening to her and was coming to join the confrontation. A bitter smile twisted Regina’s lips as she challenged them all. “Who’s next?” She let the fire play through her fingers and fed it with her anger, letting it grow bigger and hotter.

 

Another guard shifted, nudging his horse forward, intent on using the beast as his shield. Regina’s temper flared hotter than the fire in her hand. He would suffer for that, she decided. Her hand came forward and then someone grabbed her from behind, fingers as cold and hard as a vice wrapping around her wrist. Something was shoved onto her arm and she was thrown to the ground. Regina hit hard, stunned more than hurt. With a burst of rage, she swept her hand out sending magic out with a wave of force. She would show them what happened to those who dared touch her without permission. She would- nothing happened.

 

Regina swept her hand again, throwing all the magic and fury she possessed into the gesture and nothing happened. Again. Blinking with more dismay and confusion, Regina glanced down and saw the leather cuff on her wrist. Horror bloomed inside her. They had taken her magic and without it she was no match for them.

 

“Take her,” called their leader. Several of the black guards began to dismount, drawing swords. One produced a nasty looking club seemingly out of nowhere.

 

Regina pushed herself to her feet, wishing in that instant that she had conjured something more practical, a riding dress complete with leather pants so skin-tight they’d put Emma’s jeans to shame, anything. Then she would be able to move. As it was she almost tripped, stepping on the hem as she tried to straighten, throwing her arms out to catch herself. It was gratifying when two of the Black Guards flinched at the gesture, but in a faint, distant way. It would do her no good now. “What is the meaning of this?” she demanded, backing away from them. She wouldn’t make this any easier. “I am your rightful queen. Your heads will be separated from your shoulders for this.”

 

The captain of the guard laughed and waved his hand. The guards darted forward, closing in like a pack of wolves surrounding a downed deer. Regina tried to run, but they grabbed her and threw her down again. She threw her hands up to shield herself, but it was too late. The club caught her in the back of the head and Regina went down. Pain exploded and the world went dark.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Staying out of sight and letting someone else deal with a problem had never been the way Emma did things. She was trying not to piss Regina off anymore than she already had though, and if that meant staying back in the stupid thicket and letting Regina play Evil Queen to get them out of this, then Emma could do that. She didn’t have to like it though.

 

She watched as Regina stepped out into the middle of the path, head held high, and confronted the oncoming horsemen. They were recognizable as the Black Guards from Henry’s storybook and for a moment, Emma relaxed. According to all the stories, they had been incredibly loyal to Regina. That would work in their favor here.

 

She could only catch a glimpse of Regina between men and horses as she strained to hear what was going on. Regina’s voice drifted across the clearing, commanding but indistinct, and then indignant. A flick of her fingers, a flash of magic and Emma’s jaw almost dropped as the purple mist cleared, revealing Regina in a dress that was a far cry from her Mayoral pantsuits and even the occasional dress she wore.  This was decadent and daring in a way that her more professional wardrobe in Storybrooke never was. Emma took an involuntary step forward and almost poked her eye out on a branch. She snapped her attention back to what was happening and away from the way Regina’s dress hugged her curves.

 

Everyone snapped into action all at once. One of the guard let out a shout and charged at Regina, who responded with a fireball. Emma was done with waiting in that instant. It would take too long to find the easy way she and Regina had used going in. She dove out, fighting her way through the thick undergrowth, ignoring branches that grabbed and tore at her as she struggled to get to Regina. Emma stumbled, flailed and almost fell onto her face as she cleared the edge of the thicket. She caught herself on her hands and glimpsed someone coming up behind Regina with a club. Regina turned, her hand raised to throw another fireball - and nothing happened. Emma saw the instant of horror on her features, and flung her own hands out. She didn’t know why Regina’s magic wasn’t working, but she wouldn’t let those assholes touch Regina. She lashed out, intending to knock them all back with her magic, and nothing happened. There was a bewildered, panicky instant before Emma remembered what Zelena - with Hook’s assistance - had done to her.

 

Emma snarled in disgust and dove toward the center of the clearing. Something caught her around the waist and clamped over her mouth with enough strength to yank Emma off her feet. Emma fought back on instinct, slamming her heel back with enough force as she could, looking for a tender spot on her opponent. Her boot thudded into something solid but there was no give in the arm that held her.

 

“You won’t help your friend like this,” a voice hissed in Emma’s ear. It took a moment for the words to penetrate as Emma struggled to get free. She saw Regina hit the ground and the Black Guards fall on her. The hand on her mouth wasn’t sufficient to muffle the roar of fury that came out of Emma at the sight of it, but no matter how hard Emma fought, she couldn’t free herself from the iron grasp that held her. Instead she was dragged back into the thicket until they were out of sight. “You will only get you and your friend killed. Now stop struggling or I will let them have you both.”

 

With great effort, Emma forced herself to stop fighting. She jerked her head, trying to get her assailant to move their hand so she could speak, but it was no use. They didn’t let go until the men had bound Regina hand and foot, and slung her over extra horse. She had begun to stir by that time and Emma caught a faint groan as they let Regina fall against the side of the horse. At least she wasn’t still unconscious. That would have been very bad.

 

It didn’t take long for the rest of the guard to mount up and recreate their formation, this time with Regina’s horse at the center, led by a guard.

 

“If I let go, are you going to try to attack me again?” The voice sounded familiar as they hissed in Emma’s ear. “If you want to save your friend, we only have a moment to follow them before they outdistance us. If you try to fight me, we will lose them.” This time, they removed their hand to let Emma speak.

 

Emma ground her teeth. “I need to get Regina back. I won’t fight you.”

 

The arm around her waist withdrew. “Regina? The Queen?”

 

Emma spun and found herself face to face with- “Ruby?” she blurted. “What are you doing here? Did you get sucked into the portal too? How? You weren’t even at the diner.”

 

“Diner?” Ruby shook her head. “How do you know my name? Everyone calls me Red. Only my-” She bit off the rest of what she had been about to say and pinned Emma with a fierce glare. “Are you a sorceress? I saw you raise your hands to cast a spell, but nothing happened.”

 

“Yeah, I…” Emma started to answer her question automatically, but it wasn't the grey in Ruby’s hair that caught her eye or the wiry texture of hair that had been smooth just the day before. It was the scar that trailed from the corner of eye down her nose and across her cheek. “What happened to you?” Emma breathed. “You look old and you have a scar.”

 

“You dress as if you’ve been in an asylum,” Ruby snapped back, raking her eyes up and down Emma. She paled so fast that Emma thought she might faint. But Ruby didn’t faint, she launched herself throwing herself at Emma in a blur of motion that was so fast, Emma couldn’t follow it. She threw her hands up and somehow managed to get them between she and Ruby as Ruby slammed her into the ground. Emma jerked her knees up beneath them and flung Ruby off her, using their momentum to roll them both over. It took every bit of strength Emma had, but somehow she managed to pin Ruby to the ground and get her hands around Ruby’s throat, squeezing as hard as she could. It was hard, her own lungs were screaming for air, having the air knocked out of her when Ruby had thrown her into the ground. A long moment hung between them, Ruby staring at her with wide, frightened eyes, and Emma struggling to hang on to Ruby and regain enough of her wind to demand to know what was going on.

 

One relieved gasp and then another and Emma was demanding, “What the hell was that, Ruby?” Realizing that Ruby couldn’t answer her while Emma was still strangling her, Emma gave one last hard squeeze and then shoved herself up, stumbling backwards until she was about ten feet from Ruby. As fast as she had moved a moment ago, that might be enough space for her to have a chance to defend herself if Ruby attacked her again.

 

“You’re the queen,” Ruby spat, scrambling backwards, one hand rubbing at her throat. “You deserve to die for what you’ve done.”

 

“The queen? Ruby, you know me. I’m no queen,” Emma said, bent over with her hands on her knees, as she eyed Ruby.

 

“Don’t toy with me. Kill me and be done with it. You know I won’t stop until you die,” Ruby challenged her. “You deserve it for what you’ve done. You slaughter hundreds every year and they’ve done nothing more than exist. Women, children, old people. They can’t hurt you and you just-” Red shook her head, looking wild-eyed. “You disgust me. I don’t understand how something so horrible could come from Snow and Charming.”

 

The words hit Emma like a physical blow, rocking her back on her heels. “How do you… What… I haven’t done anything… I’ve tried to be…” She shook her head and tried to wrap her head around what she was hearing. Portal. She and Regina had come through a portal. Ruby recognized her, but she didn’t know this Ruby. This Ruby was older and angry, hated her enough to try and kill her after she had helped her. That meant the portal couldn’t have taken them to the past. Maybe the future? But why were they in the Enchanted Forest? After they had been banished back there by Pan’s Curse and returned to Storybrooke, at last, even David hadn’t seemed eager to go back. It didn’t matter. She had to get to Regina and - before she had realized who Emma was - Ruby had been willing to help her. Emma swallowed hard, forcing down the distracting churn of emotions that had risen in her at Ruby’s words and focused on what she had to, not how she felt. “I’m not who you think I am, whoever this queen is that you know. I’m not from this land. I came through a portal with my friend.” Emma took a step closer to her and Ruby flinched. “I need to get her back. You offered to help me before. Will you help me now?” Ruby didn’t respond. Desperation was starting to crawl up inside Emma’s throat and choke her. Regina was getting farther away from her with every passing second and Emma had no idea where they were taking her. “Please. She’s my son’s mother.”

 

Ruby remained stone-faced. “How do I know this isn’t some elaborate trick?”

 

“If I was trying to hurt you - and I was as badass as you seem to think - wouldn’t I have done it already?” Emma asked.

 

Ruby folded her arms over her chest, nudging the red cloak around her shoulder and drawing Emma’s attention to it for the first time. “Not if you were trying to gain my trust and use me to find the others.”

 

Emma arched an eyebrow. “So don’t take me to the others. Besides, if I was trying to gain your trust, wouldn't I be smart enough to use some magic so I didn’t look like this?” She waved a hand at herself.

 

Ruby eyed her warily and Emma held her breath. If Ruby didn’t help her…. “How can I prove it to you?”

 

For the first time, Ruby seemed uncertain. “I don’t know,” she said with a quick shake of her head.

 

“Yeah,” Emma said. “Pretty hard to prove a negative.” She winced, and turned her back on Ruby. “Some Savior, I am,” she muttered, bending over and pressing at her forehead with the heels of her palm. She’d come through a portal and lost Regina - maybe forever - in less than half hour. She had no plan, no resources and no magic. She couldn’t even persuade the woman who had been one of her closest friends in Storybrooke to help her. This was shit. It didn’t matter, Emma thought, pushing herself up. She had eyes. She would follow the horses’ tracks for as long as she could and then…. Well, she would figure it out again.

 

“Did you say Savior?” Ruby asked, moving closer to Emma for the first time.

 

“Yeah, why?” Emma asked, trying to shore up what little plan she had managed to scrape together in her mind.

 

“That was what they called you in the prophecy,” Ruby whispered. “You, the White Queen.”

 

Emma’s brow furrowed. “That fucking prophecy. They called me that, the Savior, and the White Knight. Never been a queen though. What about it?”

 

Ruby’s eyes narrowed. “The White Queen has never been called a Savior in this world. No one besides the White Queen’s parents and one other beside myself ever heard that title spoken.” Her breathing quickened as she looked Emma up and down. She clutched Emma’s arm. “They cast the curse in your world.” It was as much statement as question, but Emma nodded anyway. “How old were you when the curse was cast?”

 

Emma shrugged. “Hours, I guess. Not very old.”

 

Ruby gasped, her hand going up to clutch the base of her throat. “It was just a guess.” She shook her head and spoke louder. “There was never a curse like that cast here. Most now don’t even know of its threat or the one who threatened it.”

 

“Regina? What happened to-” Emma held up a hand. “Doesn’t matter. Will you help me get her back?”

 

“I…” Ruby hesitated. “Yes. But I won’t take you back to my allies. I believe you, but this could still be a trick.”

 

“Fair enough.” Emma said. “Now we have to go.” Urgency was rising up within her until she could hardly stand it. “Where are they taking her?”

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Regina stumbled and would have fallen if the guards hadn’t been holding her up beneath her arms. They dragged her through the dungeons, taking her deeper and deeper, down a winding, narrow set of stairs into a place that had never been there when this was Leopold or Snow’s palace. Without concern for the seeping wound on the back of her head, matted with hair and dried blood, they shoved her through the cell opening and slammed it shut behind her.

 

The clang of the bars echoed in the small confined space. Regina didn’t get her hands up in time to stop herself from hitting the wall. Her knuckles stung as they scraped against roughhewn stone. That small fresh hurt couldn’t compete with the way her head throbbed or the nausea that clutched at her stomach like a clenched fist. Either was enough to make her want to double over. Instead, Regina let the wall take her weight and concentrated on her breathing, a steady in and out, to compose herself. Her eyes fell shut and she struggled to think past the distractions of her injuries. Her first priority had to be escape. Emma hadn’t even… well, it had never been likely that there would be a Savior to rescue her - even if she had wanted such a thing. Which she hadn’t. With the leather cuff on her arm, cutting her off from her own magic, her options for escape were severely limited.

 

If this were the past - though there was some notable and troubling differences - then there should still be one avenue available to her. Even if it was the last place she wanted to once again place herself. Regina sighed and bit her lip, then said, “Rumplestiltskin.” Nothing happened. No dancing little imp appeared to taunt her. Nothing. “Rumplestiltskin. Rumplestiltskin.”

 

“He can’t help you.”

 

Regina jumped at the low voice. It came from nowhere and was preceded by nothing. She hadn’t heard anyone else in here, not the faintest rustling or a hint of breathing. Or perhaps it had been overshadowed by her own, loud in her ears as she had tried to focus on it.

 

Regina drew in a steadying breath and waited until she was sure her voice would come out firm, steady and demanding, without a hint of surprise or weakness. “And why is that?”

 

“Because he’s dead.”

 

Regina snorted before she could stifle the sound. “Of course he isn’t. He’s the Dark One.” There was something about that voice…. It tugged at her but with so few words she couldn’t yet place it.

 

There was a bitter laugh. It was coming from the cells beside her, Regina realized. She considered for a moment if anything would be gained by pretending ignorance but decided against it and turned to peer into the darkness. Whatever hint of warning or knowledge could be gained would be a valuable resource. “The Dark One remains but Rumplestiltskin is dead.”

 

Regina froze against the wall, recognition and the impossibility of it hitting her all at once. “Da- Charming?” She shaped the word into a sneer as it left her mouth, not the startled hopefulness that it had begun as.

 

Nothing but silence echoed back to Regina. She held her breath, waiting for confirmation or denial of her guess. Perhaps he would be able to tell her what was going on here. Only once had David been locked in her dungeons, locked here to torment Snow White and keep him from breaking the Sleeping Curse she had put on Snow. But if Rumplestiltskin was dead...well, this made no sense at all.

 

A shape appeared in the darkness, still shadowed but visible now, on the opposite side of the bars of her cage. Regina thought she could make out arms crossed over chest, even the shoulders were more slumped and rounded than she remembered.

 

“No one has called me that in a very long time.”

 

So it was David, but this… If this was the past, then something had changed. It wasn’t the one that she remembered. There had been no long separation for Snow and Charming, not long enough to produce the man that was saying these things.

 

Regina stepped away from the wall, taking just one step to make certain that she could maintain her balance and wouldn’t sway or give any sign of weakness. When she knew that she could, Regina let her fingers fall from the rough stone and strode across the meager distance to stand before David. When she was close enough to see, she gasped, her fingers curling into a fist at her side.

 

David’s hair - once blond, now grey - hung around in his face in long, lank sections. His face was lined and wrinkled. The slump of his shoulders that she had noticed from across her cell was the roundness of age. David Nolan - Prince Charming - was an old man, bent by age, muscles softened and ill-treated if the sores and the yellow tint of his skin that were barely visible in this light were any indication.

 

“What happened to you?” Regina breathed, folding her own arms across her chest. She was becoming more and more certain that this wasn’t the past with every breath she drew. There were too many things that weren’t right.

 

David lurched forward, his hands hitting the bars with more strength than she would have guessed that he still possessed. “You did!” He spit the words at her. “You and your ilk. Your Black Guard and your-”

 

“David.” It was the faintest whisper. Regina almost missed it, but David, even as he was ranting, heard it immediately and froze.

 

He turned away from Regina and disappeared into the darkness of his cell. Regina waited, wondering if he would be back. That voice could only have come from one person, of course. Regina knew who had called David off, but they were in the same situation here. If Snow couldn’t appreciate that, then she was an idiot. There was movement in the darkness again and Regina tensed.

 

David lurched back into view, his walk unsteady and shape changed. In the dim light of the dungeon, it took Regina a moment to realize that he was carrying something, a moment longer to realize that something was Snow. He dropped to one knee and almost fell forward against the bars that separated them. Through some feat of strength Regina didn’t think he had still possessed, he managed not to drop Snow or fall against her and righted himself. Only then did he lower Snow to the ground, curling himself beneath her so that she never touched the cold stone and cradling her head against his shoulder.

 

A hiss of sound escaped Regina’s lips at the sight of her once step-daughter. If David was showing signs of age and a life poorly lived, there was no comparison with Snow. Her body was wasted. Little flesh remained on her bones, her once soft cheeks, carved away to gauntness. Her skin was waxen and fragile and her bones stuck out at such sharp angles that it looked as if one move from her would send them jutting through skin. Snow lay so still in David’s arms that Regina might have thought her dead if she hadn’t heard the woman speak moments before.

 

Snow’s arm fell away from her body and knocked into the bars that separated them. Only the way her fingers curled open toward Regina showed that it had been any kind of a deliberate gesture. Regina didn’t reach back for her, though she was close enough that she could. She did bend down on to one knee, however.

 

“Snow.”

 

“Regina.” There was a soft huff at the end of her name that could have been a laugh or a scoff. Regina wasn’t certain. “She brought you back?”

 

Regina’s eyes narrowed. If Snow wasn’t the queen here - and she clearly wasn’t in these accommodations - then she would be…. Maybe she was wrong; maybe somehow Zelena had managed to change the past. “Zelena?”

 

Snow’s head tilted in incomprehension. “Who is that? No. The White Queen, The Golden Lady.” A bitter smile curved over her lips. “Emma.”

 

There wasn’t much that Snow could have said that would have startled Regina more. “Emma?”

 

Brown eyes, filmed by age, narrowed with more intelligence and energy than Regina would have credited her with. Snow’s fingers curled around the bar and she used it to pull herself closer to Regina. “Why does that surprise you? You’ve despised her since she was born and she hunted you from the moment she came of age.”

 

“Hunted…” Regina repeated, connections being made in her mind at last, realization dawning. “The curse. I never cast the Dark Curse, did I?”

 

Snow’s glance at upwards at Charming confirmed it for Regina, even if she didn’t answer.

 

“Then this isn’t-” Regina cut herself off. This wasn’t the past. Despite her question about Regina, she had known that when she had seen the aged David and Snow. But it was looking more and more as if whatever land that portal had brought she and Emma to, it had nothing to do with Zelena’s machinations. They were in some other realm, one similar enough to her own that the people she had known and existed along with where there, but a dark, twisted shadow of themselves.

 

“Isn’t what?” Snow asked, sinking back into David’s arms, her voice weak again.

 

“Nothing,” Regina said firmly, putting that aside for the time being. There were more troubling things to be dealt with here. “But I’m not the woman that you know. I’m from a different realm.”

 

Snow studied her, looking her over. “You look like the same woman. And how is it possible for you to live in two realms at once?”

 

“I don’t know,” Regina forced herself to admit. “But I am not from this realm, and you know another like me so it must be true.” Snow seemed ready to protest again, but Regina pressed on. “Look at me, Snow. I’m older than you, but I look younger by decades.”

 

“It’s true,” David said, speaking again for the first time. At Regina’s glance he gave a little shrug. “Her eyes aren’t as good as they once were.”

 

“Quite the loss for a famed archer,” Regina acknowledged.

 

“The ones that came before it were worse,” Snow said. “When I realized it was gone, it was hardly a loss anymore.”

 

Something in Regina’s chest wanted to curl inward with delight at the remembered pain in Snow’s voice. It wouldn’t be helpful at a time like this, however. What she needed now was information. “And what losses were those, dear?”

 

“My daughter,” Snow said. “My kingdom. The people I loved and all the things I held dear.”

 

Regina glanced at David behind her. “Your daughter? Isn’t she still living?”

 

“She’s alive,” David said, biting the words out with a glare for Regina. She thought his hands would have curled into fists if he hadn’t been holding Snow. “She killed Rumplestiltskin.”

 

“Emma Swan is the Dark One?” The words spilled out of Regina’s mouth with a laugh before she could stop them. The thought was ludicrous.

 

“Emma White.” David was glaring again. “And she did it to stop you. She said she needed his power to protect this kingdom from so great an evil.”

 

Regina laughed again. She couldn’t help it. “No one takes the Dark One’s power to protect someone, dear. They take it because they want it.” It was the one temptation of power that had never called to her, but then she had seen the price Rumpelstiltskin had paid and it hadn’t been worth it.

 

“No!” David snapped. “She is good and she has protected this kingdom from dangerous witches and sorcerers like you for years.”

 

“And yet, here you and her beloved mother sit - in a dungeon, wasting away. It is wasting, isn’t it, Snow, dear?”

 

Snow didn’t even flinch at the accusation. Beneath the spoiled, oblivious princess there had once lain a surprising pragmatist that came to the surface at the most unexpected times. “You know the answer to that already, Stepmother.”

 

The title was nothing but a dig and they both knew it. Regina supposed she deserved it for what she had said. It didn’t hit as deeply as Snow might have hoped at any rate given the way her relationship with the Snow in Storybrooke had changed in recent weeks, doing little more than irritating Regina. That gave her some small satisfaction. A thought occurred to Regina and she tilted her head down to look at Snow. “If I didn’t cast the curse, then what happened to my father?”

 

“Your father?” David sounded surprised by the question and Snow’s brows furrowed. David glanced down at Snow and then back up at Regina with a shrug. “He died of old age some years ago.”

 

Regina swayed, reaching for the shared bars to steady herself. For a moment she had thought she might… but no. It was enough that he had lived. A part of her wondered what her life had been like without the hole in it that Rumpelstiltskin had claimed would never be filled. It didn’t matter now; it couldn’t matter. Her father was the past. It was her son that was important. She needed to get home to Henry and the first step of doing that was getting out of this squalid, festering pit of a dungeon.

 

There was a loud, echoing boom. Regina recoiled and Charming whirled away, shielding Snow’s body with his own even now. There was a rush of air followed by a cloud of dust that lingered in the dank air. Regina braced herself against the bars and pushed to her feet. “Who goes there?” she demanded. It might have been safer to stay back in the shadows and wait to see who was there, while keeping hidden. But she was the Evil Queen and she did not cower.

 

“Regina?” Emma sounded both hopeful and surprised as she lurched into view. Regina could see the gaping hole in the far wall outside her cell as Emma stumbled through it bearing a torch.

 

“Emma.” Regina tried to hide her own surprise. When Emma hadn’t lifted a hand to help her when she had been attacked by the guards, she had assumed that she was on her own. It had hurt more than she was willing to admit. She and Emma may not agree on many things, and they might freely express that disagreement at loud volumes, but she had thought they had reached a point where they had one another’s back in a fight without question. That she was wrong about that had been an unpleasant realization.

 

“You okay?” Emma asked, scrambling over the rubble and over to the cell door. She withdrew a slender kit from the inside pocket of her leather jacket and went to work on the lock without waiting for a response.

 

“My magic was cut off from me. I was knocked unconscious with a club, slung over a horse, dragged through a castle and thrown into the dungeon,” Regina said, not bothering to hide her displeasure. "I've been better."

 

“Well, I’ll have you out of here in a sec,” Emma said, still not paying attention as she focused on the lock.

 

“Emma?” Snow gasped. Emma’s head snapped up.

 

“Snow?” She sounded shocked. Regina couldn’t blame her. “What-” The lock fell from her hand and she took a step toward the other cell.

 

“We don’t have time for that, Miss Swan,” Regina snapped, out of patience for Emma. “These people aren’t your parents. Now get me out of here.”

 

“They look like-” Emma started.

 

“But they are not.” Regina heaved an irritated sigh. “This isn’t our world. That portal didn’t-”

 

“Bring us to the past,” Emma said, cutting her off. “Yeah, I got that on my own, thanks.” She said, daring Regina to make a comment about her brains.

 

“If the silence and subtlety of the way that you broke into this dungeon is any indication of the way the rest of your rescue has preceded, then we need to leave as soon as possible. The guards in this castle are not idiots and they will come for us,” Regina said. Her gaze flicked behind Emma to the woman now coming through the hole. The red cloak she wore made her recognizable even from a distance. “Where did you find the mutt?”

 

Emma shot her a glare. “Don’t talk about Ruby like that. What’s your problem anyway? She helped me find where they were keeping you and figure out a way to get in here and rescue you.”

 

“A rescue which wouldn’t have even been necessary if you hadn’t abandoned me back there,” Regina lashed out, unable to hold the words back any longer. “Is that part of your plan to get all Henry all to yourself? It would be far easier to return to New York with him if you didn’t have to worry about me at all, would it not?”

 

Emma stepped forward, anger flaring. “I didn’t abandon you! My magic still isn’t working and Ruby attacked me. She thought-” Emma shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, but she was right. I couldn’t have done anything to help you right then because you jumped out in front of those guards and showed yourself like an idiot. If we’d just stayed hidden-”

 

“Hey!” The sharpness of David’s voice surprised them all. “What happened before doesn’t matter now. It’s what happens next that’s important.”

 

“Idiot,” Regina muttered, but without much conviction. “You’ll bring the guards down on us even faster.”

 

“Your Emma came with you?” Snow whispered.

 

Regina glanced back down at the frail woman. Something in her voice made Regina wary. “She is not ‘my Emma’, nor did she accompany me. We were sucked into a portal against our will.”

 

“But you’re friends and traveling companions,” Snow pointed out.

 

Regina shifted, glancing down to see check Emma’s progress with the lock. She was still fiddling with it and taking forever. “No. We share a son,” Regina said the words by rote, as familiar to her now as breathing.

 

Snow gasped. “You share? My daughter’s lover in another realm is the Evil Queen. It’s beyond belief.”

 

“Your daughter,” Regina snapped, stung by Snow’s words. “Is the Dark One. It makes being the Evil Queen seem trivial by comparison. And we are not lovers.”

 

“I’m the Dark One?” Emma gasped. “Seriously?”

 

“We don’t have time for this,” Ruby called. “The guards are coming. I can hear them. It’s an entire company.”

 

“Shit,” Emma muttered and went to work faster on the lock.

 

“Ruby’s right. We don’t have time,” Regina said. There was barely enough room between the bars for her to force her hand through. The rough, rusted metal scraped at her skin, but Regina folded and contorted her fingers and shoved until she managed to get enough of her arm out that Emma could get to the leather band on her wrist. “Get it off me and I’ll get us out of here.”

 

“That's how they did it," Emma hissed, more to herself than anyone else. She bit her lip and stared at the band on Regina's arm, but not making any attempt to remove it. "There’s not like some magic words or a special way I have to do this or something?” Emma asked.

 

“No!” Regina said, growing more impatient by the second.

 

Emma’s fingers grazed her wrist and then she was digging her nails under the cuff and prying it off Regina’s arm. Magic flooded back into Regina in an instant, like a dam bursting. She struggled for a minute to choke it down as it surged up within her, too quickly to be anything but destructive. She let loose her grip on the smallest part of it and exploded the locks on the cell doors, both hers and Snow and Charming’s. The doors swung open even as the surge of energy and the effort of tamping it down made Regina’s head throb even worse than before. She focused on it next, and healing what needed to be. Internal injuries were more difficult but this wasn’t Regina’s first attempt. Her grin turned feral as the pain, disorientation and nausea that had been lingering was gone in an instant. “Let’s go.”

 

Emma nodded and gestured for Regina to precede her. “We came in through the tunnels. Red knows the way. They’ve been scouting it out for a long time in case they ever needed to get someone out.” Emma grimaced. “Most of the time they don’t have the chance to make a rescue if someone gets caught.”

 

“You aren’t her,” Regina said, her fingers brushing across Emma’s wrist as she stepped past toward the gaping hole in the stone.

 

“I know,” Emma said, but her voice was tight and Regina knew the words hadn’t changed how Emma felt about what she had learned from Ruby.

 

Pounding footsteps and the clink and clang of dozens of fully armored guards charging down stone steps were loud enough that everyone could hear them, not just Ruby. Ruby was standing just on the other side of the hole and offered Regina a hand to step through. The tunnels were dark, and Regina scooped a fireball out of nothing to light their way.

 

Ruby gave her a startled look and then an appreciative nod. “I bet those come in handy.”

 

“All the time,” Regina agreed, glancing back over her shoulder to see why Emma wasn’t already behind her. When she saw that Emma was bent over Snow and Charming, lifting the frail woman over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry, it wasn’t surprising. It was the kind of idiocy that she would expect from a Charming spawn.

 

“We don’t have time for this, Emma,” Regina said, stepping back through the opening and marching toward Emma. “The guards will be here any instant and she is already dead.”

 

Emma’s head whipped around as she tried to glance over her shoulder. “No, she’s not. I can’t leave her-”

 

Regina grabbed her arm, digging her nails in with a fierce grip. “She isn’t your mother,” Regina hissed. “Your mother is waiting for us back in Storybrooke and it will devastate her if you get yourself killed for some alternate version of her that we ran into down a portal. Not to mention what it will do to our son.”

 

Emma blanched, and for an instant Regina thought she had gotten through to her. Then Emma shook her head, “No. I’m going to save them.”

 

“Fool,” Regina spat and turned to stride away. They didn’t have time to stand and argue like this.

 

“Halt!” The boom of the guard’s voice echoed through the dungeon. He stood, dozens of his brothers in arms filling up the space behind him, with a torch in one hand and a sword in the other, both held aloft.

 

Regina didn’t hesitate, shoving Emma behind with a whirl of flaring skirts in a move designed to be distracting and starting flinging balls of fire at the oncoming guards. Screams erupted from the men even as they charged. Fire was always such a delightfully effective deterrent. Fear did most of the work for Regina, but when that wasn’t enough… Regina slammed them with a wave of pure magical energy, a wall of force that hit them with bone crushing force and leveled the first wave of oncoming soldiers. The second was upon them in the next instant.

 

Fur slid against Regina’s arm as Ruby hurtled past her, slipped into her beast form in an instant to join the fight. Charming was throwing punches and making an impressive showing for someone who had been confined to a tiny cell for who knew how many decades. But Regina knew it wouldn’t last more than a moment or two. The man was running on nothing but adrenaline.

 

“Emma, we have to go,” Regina urged, shoving her hands out at the man charging her and sending him flying back into a knot of his fellows, knocking them down like bowling pins. She turned her head to locate Emma and heard the whistle of a sword singing through the air.

 

Regina glanced back in time to see the sword descending toward her head. She flung a hand up to throw magic back at her attacker. There was an instant where she wondered if she would be able to counter him in time and then another sword was there, slamming into the first blade and turning it aside. Emma slipped in front of her and forced Regina’s opponent back with a few well-timed slashes and a brutal kick that bent his knee backwards with a sickening crunch. Her sword flashed again and he fell.

 

“You’re welcome,” Emma said, flashing Regina a grin.

 

Regina rolled her eyes and they were back into the melee. They were being pushed back into the dungeon by the guards pouring in and the fallen bodies stacking up on the floor. As retreats went, it was poorly executed, but they were, at least, not cut off from their exit. It wouldn’t succeed if they kept being pushed back, however. They needed a break. She kept behind Emma to give herself an instant to gather her magic, forming it into a ball of dark power, and flinging it out into the midst of the men flooding down the stairs. It exploded outwards with energy that even across the dungeon blew Regina’s hair back and knocked Emma off-balance, sending her stumbling into Regina.

 

“Come on,” Regina said, grabbing Emma and shoving her toward the tunnels as the stairway began to cave in, slowing the rush of new guards into the room, the ones inside already flattened by Regina’s magical explosion.

 

Ruby wasted no time, slipping back into her human form and scooping up Snow from where she lay against the wall. “I’ve got her,” she said to David, who was bent over beside her, panting. His skin was an unhealthy shade of grey and Regina had her doubts about whether he could make it through this escape. Privately, she thought it might be kinder to leave him and Snow here but Ruby and Emma were insistent.

 

“Thanks, Rubes,” Emma muttered, stepping past her and ducking through their exit.

 

Regina brought up the rear, the silence ringing loudly in her ears now that the clashing of blades and screams of the injured had faded. She walked straight into David’s back as he froze in front of her. “What are you- Move,” she hissed. We don’t have time for this.” She pushed at his shoulders to urge him forward and he slipped aside without a word.

 

In front of them stood a group of guards and almost hidden behind them a woman, golden haired and dressed in white. For an instant everyone was frozen, then Ruby lowered her shoulder and charged into their midst. David was right behind her. Emma started after them. Regina caught her wrist and wrenched her away, yanking her toward the opening of another tunnel that shot off to the side.

 

“Come on!” Regina hissed.

 

“But they-” Emma protested, struggling against Regina’s hold on her.

 

“Are sacrificing themselves for you. Don’t waste it.” Regina said, overriding whatever Emma had been about to say.

 

Emma glanced over her shoulder, looking torn but nodded and let Regina pull her away. The hesitation had cost them, the tangle of guards and people fighting against them rolling outwards as the initial surprise faded. Regina paid them no mind, using magic to blast unfortunate guards aside as they came for them. One reached out for her with another leather cuff meant to restrain her magic, but Emma didn’t let him get close enough, shoving him into a wall hard enough to crack his head against the stone and drop him to the floor. A knot of guards slammed into Emma and dragged her free of Regina’s grip. A jolt of panic shot through Regina as she lost sight of Emma beneath the guards. She thought she heard a grunt and a curse that sounded like Emma but Regina couldn’t be sure as she began flinging fire at them. They scattered in an instant. Emma stumbled to her feet, clutching at her ribs and lurching backwards until she bounced off someone.

 

Regina’s eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of brilliant white and long golden hair from behind Emma. It was too late now to call out a warning. If the woman Emma had run into turned now.... Regina flicked her fingers, teleporting them both away before the Dark One could realize that her double from another universe had just bounced off her.

 

Regina didn’t take them far, only a few feet further down the tunnel. She didn’t dare to make it any more than that. She had no idea what was down there or where it would land them. “Run,” she said, urging Emma forward and claiming her hand again all the better to drag her down the winding paths and not lose track of her in the rapidly dimming light.

 

“Close one,” Emma panted as the sprinted down the treacherous path.

 

“Far too close,” Regina agreed, biting the words out with no intention of continuing the conversation. They needed to save their breath for running. She pulled them around another bend in the corridor and Emma tugged on their joined hands, swinging Regina around so she was pressed against the wall of the tunnel.

 

Regina started to protest at the unnecessary delay, then Emma’s hand was fumbling over her face until Regina felt a single finger pressed over her lips. Regina responded by trying to bite the finger, but she did it quietly. Emma snatched her finger back. In the darkness, Regina could only imagine her hurt glare.

 

Instead of retreating, however, Emma pressed closer, until her lips were beside Regina’s ear. “I stole something.”

 

“I’m sure you’ve stolen many things,” Regina said. “Why did you feel the need to stop and tell me now while we were in the midst of our escape?” Her other senses were heightened in the darkness. The sound of she and Emma’s breathing, labored from their exertion, seemed as if it alone was loud enough to bring the guards down on them.

 

“Because,” Emma said, close enough now that the soft swell of her breasts pressed into Regina with each heaving breath she took. “I stole it from her. I think it’s a wand.”

 

“A wand?” Regina said, immediately interested. Fairy wands were immensely powerful and if they were going to escape the Dark One and open a portal home, well this might be just what they needed.  “Let me see it,” Regina said, conjuring another ball of flame to light the small space and holding her other hand out for it. She almost dropped it when Emma put the slender object into her hand. It was black and wooden - so dark that it seemed to absorb light instead of reflect it. “The Dark Fairy’s wand,” Regina hissed. “This is…. It’s a legend. I thought it was lost. Even Rumple had never seen it.”

 

“So it’s good?” Emma said, with raised eyebrows. “It’ll help?”

 

Regina shook her head. She could feel the magic in it clinging to her skin. With a reluctance that surprised even herself, Regina wrapped her fingers around the base and gave it an experimental wave through the air. Nothing happened. She gave it another more confident swoosh. Nothing. Again. Regina sighed, as she felt tendrils of something reaching for her from the wand. It felt slimy and dark and sought something within Regina that made her skin crawl. “No. No, it is not good, Miss Swan. It is a very evil, very dark object.” She shoved it into Emma’s abdomen. “Take it. It needs to regain its magical charge before we can use it, but yes, it might be enough to take us home. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

 

“Okay,” Emma said, her hand curling over Regina’s in the dark as Regina let the fireball in her other hand extinguish. “But why am I carrying it?”

 

Regina winced, glad that Emma couldn’t see her expression. “Because I think it may like me too much. Your magic - dormant though it may be at the moment - is less to its taste and that might be for the best.”

 

“Right,” Emma agreed, her tone making it clear that she didn’t really understand what Regina meant by that, but she would take her word for it. “Ruby had a couple of horses waiting for us when we got out. If we can find our way, they’ll be there.”

 

“Okay,” Regina said. It was the first good news she’d heard all day. This time it was Emma who reached for her as they started into the darkness once more.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

The Dark One strode down to the center of the clearing. Men trembled in her wake and horses danced and shied away from her. She had a halo of golden curls that fell to her waist like a waterfall. A golden circlet, bedecked with the largest pearls Emma had ever seen sat atop her head and her dress was so brilliantly white it seemed to glow in the late afternoon light. The White Queen, Emma of the House White, was all things radiant and golden, and the grass withered beneath her at every place her foot fell.

 

“Bring the prisoners,” the Dark One said, with an impatient gesture as the long train of her dress hissed over the grass. She came to a stop in front of Regina and Emma. “You,” she sneered as her eyes fell on Regina. “You should be dead. I killed you myself.” She took another step forward, the smile on her face growing as she relished the memory. “I tore your still-beating heart from your chest and crushed it as you watched.” Her eyes glazed with remembered satisfaction. “After I’d tortured you for days and days first, of course.”

 

“Yes, well,” Regina said diffidently, examining her nails as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “Apparently you didn’t do a very good job, dear, as I’m still here.” There was no need to be helpful, after all.

 

The Dark One’s eyes narrowed. “Nice try.” She pointed a finger at Emma and Regina heard a choking sound from the woman beside her. “She’s not from here.” She began to circle Regina and Emma, examining them carefully. Regina had never felt more like prey and she didn’t like it. “Or she is and you’ve cleverly disguised her to look like me. Not very clever though, when she gets caught breaking into my dungeon to free you.”

 

Emma still choked and sputtered beside Regina, getting, Regina imagined, just enough air to keep from dying but far from enough to breathe comfortably.

 

The Dark One snapped her fingers and pointed them at Regina. “Are you lovers? That would explain the idiocy.”

 

Regina opened her mouth to respond - with all the sharpness of the Dark One’s own blade and in the negative - when a knot of guards stepped forward and shoved Ruby, Snow and Charming into the center of the clearing with them. Ruby and Charming stumbled but Snow fell and landed on the ground. She made no attempt to get up. In the clear light of day, she looked even worse than she had in the dungeon. Still she raised her head to face her daughter.

 

“I heard you.” Snow’s voice rang out, calm and clear, not loud or panicked but audible to everyone.

 

“Ah, Mother,” the Dark One said, whirling to face her in a rush of skirts. “So good to see you out and about.”

 

Charming glared, stepping forward until he stood closer to his daughter than Snow. “You’re the one who put us there.”

 

The Dark One rolled her eyes. “You and Mother walked down there of your own free will. Is it my fault you were so obliging?”

 

Charming lunged forward. Guards jerked him back before he had even gotten near Emma. “You lured us there under false pretenses. You are our daughter. We love you and we trusted you.”

 

The Dark One snorted. “Then you were a fool.”

 

It sounded like something Regina might have said to Snow and Charming back in the Enchanted Forest when she had been trying to kill her stepdaughter. Yet now something about it rankled Regina. She never had been very good at sharing her toys. Perhaps that was it.

 

“Trusting the people you love isn’t a mistake,” the Emma beside Regina gasped out between panting, gurgling breaths. “It’s what good people do.”

 

It was, perhaps, the most naive thing Regina had ever heard Emma say, and sounded nothing like the woman’s usual cynical nature. It did succeed in drawing the Dark One’s attention back to her, however.

 

“I am a good person,” the Dark One snapped. “Do I not protect my kingdom from all the evils that seek to harm it? Evils like her,” she added, pointing her finger at Regina. With it came the sensation of a crushing fist against her throat. Regina choked, struggled and used her magic to fight back, imagining her airways opening again. Her magic was no match for the Dark One’s, not in this realm or any other. Regina had learned that long ago. But it helped. Some.

 

“Is that why you killed her?” Snow spoke again.

 

“Of course,” the Dark One said, holding her hand to her chest as if she were wounded by the question. “Why else would I harm her?”

 

Snow ignored the last question in favor of one of her own. “Then why did you tell us she was still alive - had agreed to a truce that meant exile for her and peace for us all - Regina included - when you had killed her?”

 

“Because Regina wasn’t being evil when she killed her,” Ruby said, speaking up for the first time since they had arrived.

 

“I know someone who was there that day. My- someone I trust. She saw what you did in that village and she told me,” Ruby accused. “Those villagers were innocent of any wrong doing.”

 

“They were filth, werewolves, witches, sorcerers, dangerous magical creatures. They all deserved to die. They were a danger to the kingdom,” the Dark One hissed.

 

“A danger to you maybe,” Ruby said. “But not the kingdom. The people in that village were loyal and wanted nothing more than to live in peace. I would know. My grandmother lived there.”

 

Snow turned to look at Ruby, each movement laborious and painful to watch. “Granny was there?”

 

“She died there,” Ruby hissed. “At her hand.” She glanced over at Regina. “She was there to help. The village was inside the border of the White Kingdom, but we had heard that the Queen was coming. I had gone to gather allies and others had been sent as messengers to neighboring kingdoms. One was sent to Regina and she came. Even though we weren’t her people.”

 

“She wanted to steal them away,” the Dark One hissed. “She wanted to use their power against me.”

 

“No one can stand against the Dark One,” Regina murmured, the words coming out of her mouth as an automatic response.

 

“No, they can’t,” the Dark One agreed. “But she hadn’t yet learned that lesson, and she died for it. Most painfully.” Her dreamy smile had returned. “You seem smarter.”

 

“You killed her in cold blood,” Snow said, with something like wonder in her voice. It made Regina’s blood run cold.

 

“Yes.” The Dark One shrugged. “This is getting boring.” She took a step toward Regina, arm extended, fingers reaching - and Emma stepped in front of her, the Dark One’s hand plunging into her chest.

 

Emma gasped and let out a pained cry. “You can’t take my heart,” she hissed. “No one can. Child of True Love and all that.”

 

The Dark One withdrew her hand slowly, making the gesture look obscene. With every twitch of her finger and tug of her arm, Emma whimpered. “Is that so?” She licked finger when her hand was clear. “Your magic is delicious.” She batted her eyes at Emma, who looked like she was about to be sick.

 

“Don’t mention it. Seriously,” Emma choked out.

 

“I don’t need to take your heart to kill you,” the Dark One snarled.

 

“You’ll have to go through us first,” Snow said, managing to push herself up to one knee and hold out her arm. David’s arm slipped beneath hers like it had been choreographed and his other arm wrapped around her waist, lifting her to her feet. They strode forward together, Snow gliding more than walking as David carried her over the ground.

 

The Dark One’s brow furrowed. Against her elegant attire, it made her look petulant and small. “She isn’t even your daughter. I am.”

 

“No,” Snow said, coming to stand beside Emma and wrapping her free arm around Emma’s waist. “She is, more than you ever could be.”

 

Emma shot her a startled glancing, looking like a deer caught in headlights. The Savior didn’t know what to do in the face of a mother’s love. From what Regina had seen in Storybrooke, it wasn't surprising. Regina didn’t miss the way Emma - Emma who never hugged, never touched, never initiated contact with anyone but occasionally Henry, leaned into Snow.

 

“Fine,” the Dark One said with a wave of her hand. “So be it.”

 

David and Snow fell, crumpling like puppets with their strings cut. Snow’s fingers caught on the belt of Emma’s jeans tugging at Emma as she went down. Emma’s face dissolved into horror. “Mom?” She sank down next to the people who weren’t her parents, but who looked like them. The people who had just claimed her as their daughter, more than their own flesh and blood. “Mom,” Emma repeated, wrapping her hand around Snow’s and squeezing as if that could make Snow open her eyes again.

 

Emma looked over her shoulder at Regina, her eyes begging for something she couldn’t voice. It took a moment for Regina to force herself to step forward. Her hand was trembling as she touched Emma’s shoulder and crouched down.

 

A choked cry caught Regina’s attention. She looked up to see Ruby launching herself at the Dark One in fury, flowing from human form to werewolf in mid-leap. The Dark One laughed and let her come. Her arm plunged out, slipping through fur, muscle and bone as if it wasn’t even there. Blood and gore flew in an arc as she yanked Ruby’s heart free, tearing the physical away with the magical. Emma White laughed as she crushed Ruby's heart in her hand and turned to face them, blood dripping down onto the pure, brilliant whiteness of her dress. “Now where were we… Oh, right.”

 

Regina’s hand slipped down Emma’s spine, feeling the lump of the wand beneath her fingers where Emma had tucked it into her jeans at the small of her back. Regina plunged her hand beneath Emma’s tank, came out with the wand in hand and flung it forward, channelling every shred of magic she had left, every bit of desperation to see her son again and ounce of love in her heart into the wand. Nothing happened for an instant and Regina knew it was too late. The portal exploded open in front of them, in a swirl of purple, gold and inky black. Regina shoved Emma forward into it without hesitation.

 

***    ***    ***

 

Golden grains surrounded them, towered over them, shadowing them from the gleaming sunlight and clear blue sky. Emma lay sprawled next to Regina, the tip of her pinky finger brushing against Regina’s wrist. Neither of them moved. The portal had closed behind them, Regina waiting on edge for any sign of something following them through, be it magic or a person.  Her tension lingered until the last of the glowing colors of the magic had faded away into nothingness. Only then had she fallen back next to Emma. Their landing had crushed an indentation into the wheat field just the size of them and no larger.

 

In the back of Regina’s mind, she knew they should be up and moving already. It likely wasn’t smart to linger here, but she couldn’t make herself move. It felt safe and hidden.

 

“Was that real?” Emma asked, her voice echoing strangely amidst the sound of the breeze rifling through the tall, reedy plants and the chirping crickets.

 

The club Regina had taken to the back of her head had certainly felt real, as had the nausea, and the helplessness of being tied over a horse and led to her doom with no magic to save herself. Regina raised her hand and stared at the spot of blood, drying on the back of her hand. Ruby’s blood. She swallowed. “Yes.”

 

“This isn’t Storybrooke, is it?”

 

No. Regina knew every square inch of her town and there were no magnificent wheat fields stretching as far as the eye could see there. Not one. “No.”

 

“Great.”

 

They lay there, neither feeling the urge to move, until a hissing, crunching sound caught Regina’s attention. She recognized it as the sound of someone moving through the field at the same time she realized it was coming closer. She tapped Emma’s arm and rolled to a sitting position, drawing her legs up beneath her as silently as she could. Emma responded immediately, copying her motions and gathering herself to spring forward. Regina drew her magic to hand but waited to let flame blossom forth in her palm. Any bit of surprise they could muster would come in handy if the person coming closer didn’t have good intentions.

 

A man loomed above them, slender shoulders made bulky by the cloak thrown over them blocked out the sun and left his face in shadow.

 

“We saw you fall,” he said, glancing behind him. “Are you hurt? Do you need help?”

 

Heart pounding in her chest, Regina pushed herself to her feet, swaying forward until she could catch herself and looked him in the eye. She reached out for him without intending to.

 

“Daniel?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...to be continued. Very soon-ish.


End file.
